Random

There's a certain entertainment to be had from an inquiry currently being held in the U.K. to examine the prevalence of phone hacking by journalists at the News of the World.

The latest evidence presented today by Paul McMullan, a former reporter for the paper, offered that phone hacking was a perfectly normal activity for a newspaper that was read by 5 million adults every Sunday.

The Telegraph reports that McMullan told the inquiry that it was Piers Morgan, currently a rather charming presence on CNN, who "set the trend" for an ethos in which the … Read more

It seems that the Cleveland mall operator who last week declared it was tracking mall shoppers in California and Virginia via their cell phones has had a change of, perhaps, heart.

CNN reports that Forest City Commercial Management might have been encouraged to change its mind, heart, and attitude by a phone call from the office of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

The phone call might have directly relayed the substance of a press conference the senator gave on Sunday.

In it, he suggested that perhaps a more polite way to go about these things was to ask shoppers if they'… Read more

The finest of electronic items do occasionally malfunction.

Sometimes planes unaccountably drop out of the sky. And sometimes, when a plane comes in for a safe landing, an iPhone might just begin to turn a strange hue of red and release dense smoke.

This, according to Australian airline Regional Express, is precisely what happened Friday on a flight between Lismore and Sydney.

The airline said that the plane was coming into land when the iPhone pyrotechnics began.

The flight crew apparently took swift action, bathing the phone in soft hand lotion. No, actually, all the airline said was that the … Read more

Sometimes people ask me to look at frightfully exciting things.

These normally come via the incomprehensible medium of the press release. However, sometimes I get sent things (in this case, via an e-mail from my louche engineer friend George) describing a new invention that seems positively useful and even vaguely comprehensible.

This thing is called the SkyLight. It allows you to take your iPhone, Android phone, or any other that might still exist and turn it into a microscopic eyepiece for the world.

Its creator is medical designer Andy Miller. He has already designed the Global Focus microscope, a light, cheap fluorescent microscope for developing countries. … Read more

I've never been tempted to fight the hordes on Black Friday, for I feel sure the hordes would win.

Yet the stories you hear about Black Friday craziness can never match up to the actual footage. So I am grateful to Mashable for discovering this piece of footage from a Wal-Mart in Mesquite, Texas.

These supposedly sane human beings are fighting, clawing, crawling over each other in order to get hold of what seem to be DVDs and video games.

The boxes at which they are grabbing like lions tearing at a deer carcass say "$10 while supplies … Read more

Some say that the competitive spirit in America had died.

Those people are surely turning a blind eye to the places where Americans are showing that winning still is truly everything.

Last night, for example, at the Wal-Mart in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, there were reportedly many shoppers ready to vie for the finest electronic bargains.

The way the Los Angeles Times disseminates it, one lady shopper showed that she would not be defeated under any circumstances. She allegedly got out her pepper spray and showed the rest of those wusses who was Queen of the Electronic … Read more

Do you sleep with your iPhone next to the picture of Miley Cyrus on your nightstand?

You might soon wish to reconsider this habit.

For it seems that some people are grabbing at their phones in the middle of the night and unconsciously sending texts.

The Daily Mail informs me that these are often incoherent little messages that not even Esperanto experts can decipher.

Dr. David Cunnington, a sleep expert at the Melbourne Sleep Disorder Center in Australia told the Mail: "We have had patients who have reported sending text messages to their friends and family while asleep."… Read more

I was once introduced to a chef who believes that bacon is a fine ingredient in a dessert.

Such chefs I would describe as beyond cognitive salvation. However, Microsoft appears to suddenly believe that bacon can play an even higher social role: as the commercial equivalent of an aphrodisiac.

For, as the Seattle Times reports, the company has decided that the best way to hire engineers to its Kinect for Windows team is to offer them bacon.

Yes, free bacon.

Engineers, you see, aren't moved by vast package full of stock options, housing allowances, or multiple-hand massages. No, no. … Read more

The more one travels, the more one lives in foreign countries, the more one realizes that not everyone thinks the same way.

This is a good thing. Because if everyone was, say, American, then the whole world would feel more comfortable with violence, rather than sex. Which would have dire consequences for the world's ability to procreate. And recreate.

One wonders, though, whether there are many countries in the world that would support Pakistan banning rude text messages.

The Guardian has politely informed me that the country's telecoms regulator banished around 1,600 words or phrases that are … Read more